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The End For Stadia, But Not For Cloud Gaming.

Posted by Karl Weller on October 5, 2022
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To the surprise of absolutely no one, with the possible exception of Liz Truss, Google’s flagship, cloud based gaming system has crashed harder than the sterling under conservative led parliament. As inevitable as a Skyrim port, the Stadia’s 3 year long struggle to establish itself in an already crowded industry, is not something we should revel in. Though it is satisfying to mock and criticise Google’s narcissistic endeavour, what the Stadia’s failure really teaches us, is that Google were simply premature in their prediction of cloud gaming’s burgeoning popularity. And that in a decade’s time the Stadia will be celebrated as the precursor to future gaming propriety.

When the Stadia was announced back in 2019, you didn’t need to be clairvoyant to divine that it would fail. The fact that it languished in its attempts to attract a sustainable, dedicated audience was as predictable as Russian annexation in a Ukrainian occupied territory, from a resulting Russian endorsed election. Despite its anticipated failure, and in most cases entreated petitioned collapse, the reality is that the Stadia was just too ahead of its time, in a market that is just too competitive for even Google to infiltrate. The Stadia represents the potential aspirations for the industries future trajectory, of monopolising and limiting gamer autonomy, with subscription services that immobilises ownership of gaming material. Physically or digitally.

The games industry generated an incomprehensible $180.3 billion in revenue last year! Imagine adapting a subscription service that could exploit those gargantuan profits, whereby player’s would require an obligatory subscription just to access game’s that’d then have to pay an additional tariff to play, but not technically own. That’s not taking into account the unstable frame rates and latency you’ll experience with a router that struggles to sustain the performance of two separate mobile devices. But how long before network stability is as consistent and reliable as tax breaks for the rich? That the convenience of dependable and affordable Broadband, that has assured the viability of cloud gaming. Allowing the Sony’s and Microsoft’s of this world to partner in conjunction with Broadband companies, to ensure that this is the only propriety means of gaming?

So yes, the Stadia has fallen into obscurity, much to the jubilant complacency of its very vocal detractors, that fail to realise that this is only the beginning of cloud gaming infrastructure. The start of deposing physical and digital media, in favour of a service that is much easier to regulate. We haven’t heard the last of cloud gaming, any more than we have from Google.

Google Stadia Closes It’s Internal Game Studio….To The Surprise Of No One.

Posted by Karl Weller on February 4, 2021
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The Stadia’s sedate and beleaguered demise is a result most of us could have predicted. It certainly doesn’t require any prophetic intuition or any inherent clairvoyance to divine that Googles anti-consumer directive simply isn’t a viable alternative to the industries more accomplished contemporaries. And with Google announcing that all of their internal game development will cease operation, leaving a specially curated team of talent sourced (poached) from more distinguished developer’s without employment, this potentially signals the end to the Stadia, given Googles notorious record for the precipitating termination of its products.

This announcement doesn’t directly indicate that the Stadia’s service is ending, but at this point it seems more like a formality than just speculative assumptions. Witnessing the Stadia’s timely expiration should solicit a glimmer of satisfaction from me. Since it’s announcement back at the tail end of 2019 I was severely critical of the streaming only games console, especially one designed, developed and promoted by a committee that has little understanding of gaming. But the manner in which Google fumbled not only the console itself, but in the way it secured a specifically assembled group of individuals, derived from other established studio’s, to a newly funded division, with the express purpose of creating new, exclusive content for their system, whose talented expertise were probably heavily committed to many developing projects, now forced into redundancy before they’d even had a chance to accomplish anything just makes the whole sordid affair immensely asinine!

The trouble with Stadia was its guiding principle that downloading games is an anachronistic method of playing game’s. That a Netflix style streaming service is the future, and that the Stadia is pioneering that philosophy. But offering a subscription service that provides entry into a market where you still have to purchase the games, when the Xbox and even PlayStation offer a more comprehensive amenity, with the added incentive of being able to download your content if you don’t have access to a stable Internet connection is simply inept. The Stadia’s functionality is wholly determined by the reliability of connectivity, which is not a ubiquitous compliance for most.

Google has ultimately blamed the economy, citing the exponential cost of investment in game development. This however coincides with Nintendo publishing record profits on both its hardware and software. Which speaks more about Googles failures than it does about Nintendo’s success. So as sad as the redundancies are, I don’t reserve any commiserations for a company that doesn’t respect the very industry its trying to undermine.

I Already Hate The “Stadia”.

Posted by Karl Weller on July 25, 2019
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Change is inevitable. In gaming, its a necessity. Technology, creativity and ambition are permanently aligned in transitional furtherance, rarely composed into sedate neutral territory. Keeping up with the insatiable expectancy of gamers is a contemptuously unyielding difficulty. For years consoles have attempted to surpass and at times belittle their contemporaries, goading one another with corporate marketing campaigns that espouse the superiority of a brand. The “POWER” and prevailing content that makes them the preferred choice for the distinguished and “Cool” gamer is still the method of choice in publicizing their marginally different hardware, from the competitors similarly produced games console. The fabricated bickering promoted by all parties only generates further interest and a benign division between friends that choose a different option from yourself. Fans loved it of course, still do. Mocking the others failure as if it were somehow a victory for themselves. The advent of social gaming has only intensified the erratic scrutiny piled on to console creaters, searching for new, innovative ways for people to play games. The newest console to the market is Googles marquee abomination: The Stadia. A console not even released yet, but I already hate!

At first I had mistakingly concluded that this was some pathological fear, influenced by some irrational prudence against something new and foreign. That the dearth of physical games was an omission detrimental to the preservation of game ownership. In actual fact I just think the Stadia is a shallow perversion of what a games console does, not what it is. The Stadia is detached, insipid service, without a trace of individuality or discernable identity. A vapid creation of function and supported by the analytical perogatives of money men. The Stadia is devoid of character, existing as a means of monopolising games, not sharing them. Endorsing the licencing of digital products via a subscription service, propagated to swindle those acclimated to such disreputable business practices. The Stadia is that guy that would rather take selfies with illustrious works of Art rather than admire them. The same individual that believes new equates to better.

Its like Google researched the history and legacy of gaming and concluded that what the next generation of consoles needs is limitations. That consumers need controlling. That progression requires regulating how people interact with games. That streaming them via intermittent WiFi connections is far more glamorous to prospective buyers. “You know what gamers love more than owning, trading and collecting games? Binary code!”. Yeah, sexy!

With the Stadia attempting to infiltrate the gaming firmament, I shudder to think where the industry is going. There’s nothing the Stadia offers that makes it progressive. If anything this charlatan is symbolic of the predatory nature of rapacious corporations, looking to exploit a popular form of entertainment. The Stadia isn’t a platform for gaming, it’s a costly loan for a service you’ll never truly own.

And if this is the intended future of gaming, I don’t think I can be a part of it.

What do you guys think of the Stadia? Is this really the future of games consoles? Let me know in the comments below. Cheers.

Will Google’s “Stadia” Topple Games Consoles?

Posted by Karl Weller on March 22, 2019
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Get your tin foil hats and pitchforks at the ready, as Google have announced their first foray into gaming with a digital only gaming platform that looks to usher in the end of traditional gaming consoles. This is what one might file under ambitious. The “Stadia” as Google have curiously christened it is a rather unique device in the sense that the only hardware you need is Google’s hideously mutated PlayStation/Xbox controller. Instead of downloading content to your external device, the games themselves operate on internal units at Google, allowing for quicker accessibility to the games you want to play. Featuring a Google Assistant and a YouTube sharing function, the Stadia can connect to your television, laptop or even your mobile phone for instant recreational play. Boasting support of 4K quality resolution and 60 fps, with a desire to double those figures in the future, the Stadia certainly means business. But can it really supplant the current status of gaming consoles and perhaps even your PC?

Google certainly sound confident that the Stadia is the natural successor, perhaps even usurper to console gaming but I’m a little dubious. For me there are as of now a number of variables that need to be addressed before I’d even vaguely consider the Stadia to be a viable alternative. First and perhaps most significantly is price, particularly the cost of subscription. Will everyone have access to the same content? Or will an inflated subsidy yield greater admission, perhaps a premium pass service for the more discerning? What games will actually be available on such an experimental device? Without content then it’s already a non starter. Also rather critically, how will the Stadia realistically deal with lag? Persistent latency could still be a huge problem, despite confident claims that such issues shouldn’t arise with the Stadia. With my listless Internet connection there’s no guarantee that the device will perform to an acceptable function. Even with high-speed broadband, how well it copes with latency is redundant if your Internet is down.

Google’s heavy association with YouTube also gives me pause, considering the latter’s obtuse fair use policies and vitriolic approach to anything that could be deemed offensive to a toddler. Especially as it’s a feature that’s presumably going to be such a prominent integration. It just seems less like gaming and more about leveraging YouTube to encourage the community to keep uploading and watching. A gaming platform that’s really designed for the YouTube community, rather than gamer’s. Another concern I have can be applied to all streaming services: the lack of ownership. Technically you’ve never truly owned a game, but rather purchased the rights to the licensing in a semi permanent capacity. Though its less likely that a game you purchased physically decades ago, that has now been censored due to licensing or some other form of prohibition will lead to lawyers breaking into your home and forcibly confiscating said content. But relying solely on a subscription for games, and possessing no personal storage for them is very discomforting to me.

Personally I’m not entirely convinced by, nor completely opposed to the Stadia. I’ve not seen enough to suggest this is as my statutory gaming console and that it will bury the next generation of consoles into deep, bottomless hole. I see this more as an accessory to a more prominent gaming console. More details are required before I’d even consider purchasing yet. It certainly has my curiosity though, if not my attention.

What do you think of the Stadia? Let me know in the comments below. Cheers.

I’ll Never Understand Google Analytic’s.

Posted by Karl Weller on August 15, 2015
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matchmaker 2015-04-21 16-29-52-63Roughly 3 months ago I received notification detailing an update to a steam title called “Kitty Powers Matchmaker”. Now because I’m trying to write new, original content (because I’m pompous) that is formally derived from my own intimate experiences, many requests such as these are often dismissed or forgotten entirely. This isn’t because I consider such presumptuous inquiries detestable, I actually consider such invitations rather flattering, complimenting my more auteuristic musings with concise data. I just find my time should be utilised in a less commercialised way. My inbox is usually endowed with a clustered abundance of notifications concerning any number of mobile or independent console games, with the particulars of the messages ordinarily containing prompted overtures devoid of impartial transparency. Featuring stuff like “From the prestigious studio developer of such critically acclaimed masterpieces like “Pirate Gem 5” and “Moderately Irritated Birds” comes the most generic, no one gives a poop about game, based on another game, but is completely separate and ironically original…..etc. You get the idea and I understand that it’s all for promotional purposes and are trying to sell a product. But in this instance I liked to have a varied depiction of the games industry, especially those with a distinct premise that Kitty Powers Matchmaker presented. I was intrigued by the design so I decided to publish the details with minimal effort on my part. All the relevant information pertaining to game were contained within the email, as well as a hue of images that I felt were particularly compliant to the themes and ideas the developers were attempting convey. And considering that at that time I wasn’t blessed with a considerable amount of freedom, as well as social constraints that didn’t permit a protracted articles concerning arbitrary deterrent in a game or a dream I had about being attacked by giant crabs, this appeared to be a congenial collaboration generated through reliant necessity from both parties, utilising each others functions for mutually beneficial purposes.

So I published a very basic article they covered the overall message that the email characterised…..and I promptly forgot about it. It wasn’t until approximately a week later that I noticed an irregularity with statistics. Somehow, through some systemic circumvent in Google’s internal analytic’s I was securing an obscene amount views, seemingly attracting more visitations than a site purely dedicated to Christina Hendricks ample bust?! The cause of this elevated fluctuation was rooted in the seemingly innocuous demand for the very article I had forgotten. This is the asinine article that was attracting 100’s of potential subscribers to my site? This?! Not some polished whimsy or humorous annunciation that has taken weeks to evaluate and articulate, but this! I’m not ungrateful for the sudden solicitation of prospective new readers to a site often strewn with fewer visitors than a pub that distributes non-alcoholic beers, but it kind of makes a mockery of the entire system when something I had little input maintains such an eminent position in Google’s page ranking. It’s probably just my arcane understanding of the way Google conducts its business, but it seems farcical that something with so little attention afforded to its content can–in my opinion– grant such adverse importance. Once lying adjacent to the official site, it has since plummeted down the listings thanks to the generous acclaim that has been generated by far more influential gaming publications. I recognise that I’m hardly amongst the higher echelons of commutative distinction, but one principled in humility at least, and I’m kind of glad about this. It’s curious how its ascendancy in Google listing was achieved and why punitive restrictions are placed on my more sedulous pieces. Maybe Google hates me? Or maybe I shouldn’t try so hard?

Have you ever received more views or appreciation for something that didn’t require as much work? Let me know your thoughts. Comment, like and subscribe. Cheers as always.